By Ruth A. Pagell*
(4 Oct 2022) Article 52 has two parts and a separate special report that has links to statements players in the bibliometric supply chain made in response to events in Russia and Ukraine. Part One is a short review of Changing Higher Education in East Asia (Marginson & Xu, referred to as M&W in the article) that is integrated into Part Two, the summer rankings updates. Nine rankings are covered: CWTS Leiden, ShanghaiRanking’s ARWU, Nature Index, NTU Rankings, QS World Rankings, URAP (University Rankings of Academic Performance), Round University Rankings (RUR), Webometrics, and Scimago Institution rankings.
BOOK REVIEW
I was excited when I read about a new book, Changing Higher Education in East Asia from the UK’s Centre for Higher Education. However, at first glance, I thought that the content would not be of interest to my readers. The emphasis is on the interaction of Sinic1 and Western cultures. The more I thought about how to present the book, the more I realized how important it is. Much is written about the increase in the rankings of Chinese universities and the decline in Western universities. It has set up an “us versus them” scenario. The book emphasizes the interaction of Sino and Western cultures. It expands the perspective of Western and Asian higher education and what can be gained by integrating both world views.
It is available as either a hardback or an e-book. A preview of the book’s content is available on the website. 2019 OECD and citation data are used. They were available at the time the chapters were written. This article uses data released in 2022.
The book is divided into four parts with 12 chapters. Each part is introduced by a CJK character. The parts are listed below and the chapters are listed in Appendix 52. A.
The authors’ introductory chapter, “’The ensemble of diverse music’: Internationalization strategies and endogenous2 agendas”, paints a broad picture of the entire East Asian region which also includes Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, and Mongolia.
1: 和 Higher education and the global common good, 4 chapters including two chapters on China, one on Korea, and one discussing World Class Universities, a concept introduced in a review of Douglass’ book on flagship universities (Ruth’s Rankings 20).
2: 天下 Internationalization and Endogenization, Regionalization and Globalization; Four chapters including Japan, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam
3: 人 International Mobility and Academic Migration; Three chapters, including chapters on Japan, Covid, and international faculty in China.
The book is part of the Bloomsbury Higher Education Research Series, a product of ESRC/HEFCE Centre for Higher Education (CGHE). Another title in the series that may be of interest is Changing Higher Education in India” (Chattopadhyay).
PART TWO: East Asian updates
Changes in this year’s ranking are uninteresting. Harvard is number one in eight of the nine updates. I was reviewing the book at the same time the 2022 CWTS Leiden rankings were released. Looking for a different approach, I have mapped the Asian universities in Table 1.4. (M&W, pgs. 19-20) to the nine rankings. The list is from CWTS’ 2021 rankings based on citations in the top 5% of publications 3. Table52.1 below includes four updates, all with a focus on scholarship and research.
Updates include links to the original Ruth’s ranking article, the most recent update, and companies’ releases that are relevant. Table 52.2 lists the top 10 East Asian universities for all nine updates. Numbers refer to columns in the Table.
1. CWTS Leiden Ranking (NL) added 109 universities. The total number of articles and articles in the top 5% are size dependent. There are no surprises. “PP” rankings are based on the proportion of articles in an indicator category. 4
Harvard is first in output for all indicators. The universities below are first in each category based on size-independent (PP) proportions:
Scientific impact – Rockefeller University (US); All Collaborations – University of Science & Technology, Korea; All Open Access – London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Gender, percent woman authors – Medical University of Bialystok (PO).
Introduction -February 2015: https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-8-something-everyone/
Most recent update –June 2021: https://librarylearningspace.com/news-update-june-2021-the-end-of-the-2020-release-cycle-and-the-beginning-of-2021-2022/
Background information: https://www.leidenranking.com/information/general
2. ShanghaiRanking’s ARWU (CN) has a consistent methodology since beginning in 2003. Starting with 500 universities, it has featured the top 1,000 since 2018. 30% of the composite score is based on alumni or staff who have won Nobel prizes or prestigious awards. Out of the 1,000 universities, less than a third have a score in these categories. 1,800 universities are in the 2022 subject rankings, (GRAS). Click here for the list of the 54 subjects and the top in each.
Data Source: Clarivate, Nobel prize, math union
Introduction – December 2014: https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-6-scholarly-rankings-asian-perspective/
Most recent update – October 2021: https://librarylearningspace.com/new-releases-of-arwu-and-the-university-rankings-featuring-selected-metrics-updates-through-mid-october-2021/
World Rankings Press release: https://www.shanghairanking.com/news/arwu/2022
3. Nature Index (multinational) creates a market basket of science journals. Generate a list of the top 500 in the world or Asia-Pac or a top list for any country. China continues to rise based on output, the only measure used. Thailand’s Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science & Technology just misses the world’s top 500 and is 194 out of the top 500 in Asia-Pac.
Introduction: February 2015 – https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-7-asian-institutions-grow-nature/
Most recent update – June 2021: https://librarylearningspace.com/news-update-june-2021-the-end-of-the-2020-release-cycle-and-the-beginning-of-2021-2022/
Press Release – June 2022: https://group.springernature.com/gp/group/media/press-releases/nature-index-annual-tables-2022/23163716
4. NTU Rankings (Taiwan) – Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities increased its database from 800 to 1,016. Data are from Clarivate’s SCI and SSCI. 80% of the metrics are size-dependent. Only re-ranking on the average number of citations results in a different listing. (4) Introduction: December 2014- https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-6-scholarly-rankings-asian-perspective/
Most recent update- January 2022 – https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-ranking-news-update-december-2021-january-2022/
NTU has a very low profile compared to other rankings. Click on Methodologies for more information – http://nturanking.csti.tw/about/features
5. QS World Universities (UK) uses different metrics, with a different target audience. It is one of the Big Three, along with THE and ARWU. It is covered in many Ruth’s Rankings. It uses one bibliometric from Elsevier data, citation per faculty (20%). 50% of the rankings are from reputation surveys.
Introduction: https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-5-comparing-times-higher-education-qs-rankings/
Latest Update of QS World rankings: https://librarylearningspace.com/news-update-june-2021-the-end-of-the-2020-release-cycle-and-the-beginning-of-2021-2022/
Note: QS “2023” rankings will be covered later this year when THE releases its new updates and QS releases its new SDG indicators.
The next two rankings, URAP and RUR, were introduced in August 2021 in RR 47 Part 2: https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-47-part-2-the-quest-continues-for-new-ranking-metrics-for-universities/
6. University Ranking by Academic Performance – URAP (Turkey) URAP uses Clarivate data to create new metrics. It includes more countries than other rankings using Clarivate data. Top results are similar.
Introduction – August 2021 from RR 47 Pt 2 Appendix D . In addition to adding a couple of different metrics, it includes seven Singaporean universities.
| Rank | |
| 27 | National University of Singapore -NUS |
| 60 | Nanyang Technological University -NTU |
| 868 | Singapore Uni of Technology & Design -SUTD |
| 1444 | Singapore Management University – SMU |
| 2195 | Singapore University of Social Sciences -SUSS |
| 2429 | Yale NUS * |
| 2587 | Singapore Institute of Technology -SIT |
*Being phased out
URAP is promoting its 78 subjects in this year’s rankings: https://urapcenter.org/cdn/storage/PDFs/aScBd9RS5qDzBjTH3/original/aScBd9RS5qDzBjTH3.pdf
7. Round University Rankings-RUR (Georgia) is open to any university that wants to participate. Table 52.2 shows data are similar to the other rankings. RUR uses Clarivate data. It immediately moved to Georgia from Russia. From RR 47 Part 2 Appendix C.
M&W’s Table 1.4 and Table 52.2 emphasize the dominance of China in East Asia. 25 universities are included in the top 10 for the nine rankings.
Tsinghua and Peking universities are on all top ten lists and Zhejiang and Tokyo are on eight lists. The west still leads in rankings when quality and size-independent rankings are added.
CONCLUSION: The top universities remain at the top over time and across rankings. The differences in ranking depend on publication factors such as size-dependent or independent and the use of bibliometrics or a mixture of bibliometrics and other metrics to create a composite score. Universities are part of the geopolitical landscape of their countries, over which they have no control. See RR 52 Special Report for how members of the information supply chain of research institutions, publishers, data analytic suppliers and rankers are caught between geopolitics and supporting the researchers who do not have the option to choose where they live and work.
As a final reminder, using rankings for decision-making requires a thoughtful approach. Not enough attention is given to subject rankings and ranking on individual metrics, when possible.
In Ruth’s Rankings 53, I return to the final part of gender, gender identity
NOTES and RESOURCES:
1 Sinic refers to Chinese. It is later used with wider reference to East Asian peoples
2 Endogenous – “growing from within” (OED)
3 P (top 5%) and PP (top 5%). The number and the proportion of a university’s publications that, compared with other publications in the same field and the same year, belong to the top 5% most frequently cited. (https://www.leidenranking.com/information/indicators)
4 Rankers try to find a reliable size-independent indicator for citations with results that are different from other rankings, whether it is an average number of citations, per paper, per faculty or researcher smaller universities may rise to the top.
Center for Global Higher Education (CGHE) is a research partnership of 10 UK and international universities, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, (ESCR) with support from Research England.
Chattopadhyay, S., Marginson, S. & and Varghese, N. S. (ed.) Changing Higher Education in India. London, Bloomsbury Academic, https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/changing-higher-education-in-india-9781350192393/
Marginson, Simon and Xu, Xin, ed. (2022). Changing Higher Education in East Asia. London, Bloomsbury Academic, https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/changing-higher-education-in-east-asia-9781350216259/
Ruth’s Rankings
A list of Ruth’s Rankings and News Updates is here.
*Ruth A. Pagell is emeritus faculty librarian at Emory University. After working at Emory, she was the founding librarian of the Li Ka Shing Library at Singapore Management University and then adjunct faculty [teaching] in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaii. She has written and spoken extensively on various aspects of librarianship, including contributing articles to ACCESS – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3238-9674
